New Delhi: If the twin issues of water management and water governance are handled successfully, India can easily solve most of its water issues, said G Asok Kumar, director general, National Mission for Clean Ganga.
Addressing the 13th IWA International Conference on Water Reclamation and Reuse under the theme Water Reuse: Overcoming the Challenges of Growth and Climate Change, hosted by FICCI, the DG said that we have a sufficient quantity of water, but we do not manage the water effectively.
Alluding to the Swachh Bharat Mission, Kumar said that 10 crore toilets have been provided since 2014 that led to achieving the open defection-free status. “The establishment of the Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019 led to the ‘breaking up of silos’ and made a difference through ‘coordinated, comprehensive decision-making'.”
Speaking about Namami Gange programme under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, he said that there are 176 sewage projects with the capacity to treat over 5000 million litres per day.
“The UN ranked Namami Gange as one of the top-10 ecosystem restoration programmes in the world. We also have the ‘Catch the Rain’ campaign, under which 47 lakh structures were made all over the country to harvest rainwater. We are moving away from big dams to distributed storage.”
The DG also noted the plans to rejuvenate river Cauvery on the lines of Namami Gange.
Kumar said that India is the largest exploiter of groundwater, with 85% of water used in agriculture. “Six states have come out with a water management policy. Wastewater is a resource and a game changer.”
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